LETTER: Obamacare won't fix broken health care system

President Barack Obama said he would not negotiate on the debt ceiling limit with the Republicans; Republicans do not want to raise the debt ceiling without concessions on the Obama health care reform bill. There are two parties that have postured and “drawn a line in the sand” that could lead to another shutdown of the government.

Wicked Local

Writer

Posted Sep. 23, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Sep 23, 2013 at 11:20 PM

Posted Sep. 23, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Sep 23, 2013 at 11:20 PM

» Social News

President Barack Obama said he would not negotiate on the debt ceiling limit with the Republicans; Republicans do not want to raise the debt ceiling without concessions on the Obama health care reform bill. There are two parties that have postured and “drawn a line in the sand” that could lead to another shutdown of the government.

E.J. Dionne, in his Sept. 20 column, points out that only the Republicans have the “utter indifference ... to the damage that win-at-all-costs politics could cause the overall economy.”

Both parties are convinced that their path is right and are unwilling to compromise, but Dionne believes that the Republicans are wrong and the president should continue to fight for the Obamacare health reform.

Dionne suggests that the Republicans want to stop Obamacare because it might succeed just like Social Security and Medicare. While Social Security and Medicare have been successful, they have also been abused and will cost taxpayers well more than $100 billion this year. Changing these programs is almost impossible — federal inspector generals have pointed out how the Social Security program could save $67 billion this year by eliminating some of the fraud, but Social Security officials have not responded.

Obamacare may in fact help some of the uninsured but the program is already cleary flawed. Small businesses have already been negatively impacted by the Obamacare provisions; 41 percent have frozen hiring, 19 percent have reduced employees, and 38 percent have pulled back plans to grow their businesses.

Many in the middle-class who are uninsured, are electing to pay the Obamacare penalty (about $100) rather than pay $3,000 to $4,000 each year. When they get sick, they will get the health care and the insurance companies will have to pay for their poor decisions.

Obamacare does not address the issue of frivilous malpractice lawsuits, and doctors continue to pay enormous malpractice insurance that continues to drive health care costs.

These issues alone should make us pause before enacting Obamacare and

there must be many more issues embedded in the more than 2,300 pages of this heath care reform bill.

To prevent a shutdown, the president and Republicans must come together to compromise. There will never be a middle ground if one side is demonized. Both sides are right but, both sides need to realize that both sides have some issues that need to be reworked.

The best health care reform will be a bill that is agreed upon by both parties.